Kohli determined on 6-5 combination for upcoming season

[vayuu1]

For 6-5 combination the wicketkeeper should be good batsman who can contribute with the bat.I would prefer Naman Ojha instead of Saha for this role.I can imagine Ojha scoring 100 in batting at no 6 but Saha batting does not show any confidence.

Why not groom sanju for this role, he is young and looks a better bat than saha.

[tweaker]

I don't mind 6-5 combination' date=' but we need a good wicketkeeper batsman, saha the keeper is good, but saha the batsmen, looks very ordinary.[/quote'] +1,

[India-KXIP fan]

Im all for it. India beat Aus 4-0 at home it's obvious 6-5 is here to stay after that result. 3 spinners, 2 seamers was attack that time, should be the same this time. 3 spinners never fails in Asia. Add to that 2 fast reverse swinging quicks (not really Ishant's strength) and you have a very solid side. Bhuvi should be kept for England tours. 3 spinners can already cover a huge workload, just need 2 quicks to steam in and reverse it from time to time. Only 3 in India can do that well and they are Shami, Yadav and Aaron. Away from home we saw how quickly a trio off Jaddu, Dhoni, Binny falls No real testing matches away from home for 3 years though so who cares.

[India-KXIP fan]

Dhawan Vijay Rohit Kohli Rahane Saha Ashwin Jadeja Harbhajan Shami Yadav Reserves: Rahul Pujara Aaron Some spinner doing well in domestics Ishant Shami just ahead of Aaron, feel he's more skilled and bigger threat with reverse swing.

[diga]

5 is good. But that should be 3 spinners+2 seamers. Ishant should not be played.

We can get one of the batsman to bowl spin.. we need 3 seamers

[vishalvirsingh]

right decision - 5 bowlers is the right mantra and is mandatory on faster tracks. on spinning tracks even a 2 + 2 attack can also work as 2 spinners take a lot of work load but on tracks that have a little for pacers one shud go with 3 + 2 or 4 + 1 attack. even a 4 + 1 attack should also be tried on a fast track. but with that kind of strategy, Saha needs to Score and even ASHwin needs to Score. if Saha cant score then its a BIG issue. Saha is a very good wicket keeper and he has proved that already by his keeping but he has been regularly failing as a batsman and that's a worry.

[CoverDrive]

which pacer would you drop if we go for a 3 spinner attack

[vishalvirsingh]

Ishant Sharma should be dropped and Umesh and Varun played. 3 top pacers that we have are Umesh Shammi and varun... ishant is mostly a defensive bowler- only gives away less runs in tests but his wicket taking strike rate is very less. on one particular day he could get his wicket taking length for a change otherwise he is always a defensive bowler.

[Forever Indian]

If we are to play 6+5 overseas then we need a proper allrounder like Shreyas Gopal as one of the bowlers. If his bowling is good enough I would get him into the squad soon...

[SLICKR392]

This will work well in asian pitches. If we go out to play in NZ or Eng ' date=' if we are 4 down for 150 , we may end up all out for 180.[/quote'] Yeah, as if when we were down for 150-4 earlier, Dhoni and Jadeja used to get us to 500. Lol

[vishalvirsingh]

sanju Samson is not even a keeper at present so we cant even rate him. karthik is a Bad wicket keeper so he shud not be considered. Naman OJHA is a fair wicket keeper and possibly a good batsman. Saha is a Top Keeper but a fair batsman. that SMall 5 4 " wicket keeper who opened for Mumbai IPL team is a good batsman and a fair keeper but his height is so small that he may not keep well to fast bowlers. at present we have no option but to pray that Saha becomes a better batsman.. I wud give at least 4 tests to Saha before taking any call.

[vishalvirsingh]

there was that very tall leg spinner Rahul.. I guess that guy really looked good and was in the kumble mould. where is he??

[Forever Indian]

sanju Samson is not even a keeper at present so we cant even rate him. karthik is a Bad wicket keeper so he shud not be considered. Naman OJHA is a fair wicket keeper and possibly a good batsman. Saha is a Top Keeper but a fair batsman. that SMall 5 4 " wicket keeper who opened for Mumbai IPL team is a good batsman and a fair keeper but his height is so small that he may not keep well to fast bowlers. at present we have no option but to pray that Saha becomes a better batsman.. I wud give at least 4 tests to Saha before taking any call.

Height shouldn't matter much but technique does. Healy was a short keeper as well and was one of the best in the world. Just like Vijay I would give a second chance to Parthiv Patel if his keeping has improved. His batting has definitely improved a lot, he has 21 first class centuries and opens for Gujarat in tests.

[Silva]

Only having 4 bowlers is the reason we didn't win the test series in south africa. Plus our pace bowlers lack stamina to bowl long spells so it's more important for a team like India to have a 5th bowler. Not sure why we needed a new captain to figure this out.

[Gunner]

Totally agree with Kohli, 5 bowlers is the way to go in Tests because bowling has been our major weakness in the longer format. We need 5 bowlers to have a shot at taking 20 wickets since our attack is young, inexperienced and still settling into the the side.

[tweaker]

Harsha Bhogle & Manjrekar are of view that Saha should bat below Ashwin.I think this defense of Saha as good wk is going too far.If Saha fails again Ojha should be tried .I don't think Ojha wicketkeeping will be too bad

[maniac]

5 bowler strategy works only if one of your bowlers is an allrounder and by that I don't mean bits and pieces. Also keep in mind we don't have a keeper with proven batting credentials...Dhoni for what it's worth was a game changer in sc conditions . Also none of the 5 bowlers we have a strike bowlers...we no longer have a kumble,kapil or even zaheer. So playing with 5bowlers and weakening what your traditional strength which is batting is a recipe for disaster. Forget kapil we don't even have a prabhakar or anyone close to him in 20 years. Bhuvi might be that guy but jadeja is definitely not. Also tell me the last team to play 5 bowlers just for the heck of it. Argument can be made for ashwin but don't think his batting while pleasing to watch compared to bhuvi,jadeja or bhajji is not very consistent enough yet.

[HippoSucks]

5 specialist bowlers can only be used against a weak side and if a flat pitch is anticipated. Even on batting paradises if you're facing a quality team this combination won't work. For most of the matches, in the subcontinent or otherwise, I think India should run 6 specialist batsman (or wicket keeper), 1 all-rounder (Jadeja in the subcontinent) and 4 specialist bowlers.

[HippoSucks]

5 bowler strategy works only if one of your bowlers is an allrounder and by that I don't mean bits and pieces. Also keep in mind we don't have a keeper with proven batting credentials...Dhoni for what it's worth was a game changer in sc conditions . Also none of the 5 bowlers we have a strike bowlers...we no longer have a kumble,kapil or even zaheer. So playing with 5bowlers and weakening what your traditional strength which is batting is a recipe for disaster. Forget kapil we don't even have a prabhakar or anyone close to him in 20 years. Bhuvi might be that guy but jadeja is definitely not. Also tell me the last team to play 5 bowlers just for the heck of it. Argument can be made for ashwin but don't think his batting while pleasing to watch compared to bhuvi,jadeja or bhajji is not very consistent enough yet.

Ashwin is a better test batsman that B Kumar and Harbhajan so far.

[sensible-indian]

5 specialist bowlers can only be used against a weak side and if a flat pitch is anticipated. Even on batting paradises if you're facing a quality team this combination won't work. For most of the matches, in the subcontinent or otherwise, I think India should run 6 specialist batsman (or wicket keeper), 1 all-rounder (Jadeja in the subcontinent) and 4 specialist bowlers.

That's still considered 6-5 combo mate. We consider Jaddu a specialist bowler (and maybe AR) in Tests.